A mystery

Something off-topic but this caught my attention when I was trying to catch up with the news:

Kilo prototype mysteriously loses weight

By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press Writer Wed Sep 12, 1:00 PM ET

PARIS - A kilogram just isn't what it used to be.

The 118-year-old cylinder that is the international prototype for the metric mass, kept tightly under lock and key outside Paris, is mysteriously losing weight — if ever so slightly. Physicist Richard Davis of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sevres, southwest of Paris, says the reference kilo appears to have lost 50 micrograms compared with the average of dozens of copies.

"The mystery is that they were all made of the same material, and many were made at the same time and kept under the same conditions, and yet the masses among them are slowly drifting apart," he said. "We don't really have a good hypothesis for it."
... more

Reminds me of Matthew 5:18: For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. (ESV)

And Julia will have her say here: ... in many school, kids look at the wonders of science and say "wow", but in our school, we look at all the wonders, then we look up and say, "WOW!"

I know I said that this is off-topic, but somehow or rather ... I am still in the game ;)

pearlie
Picture from BIPM